


Life in space is not as simple as grocery shopping

by Loinski



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Angst, Another fanfic with Mutiny, Gen, I like Kraglin and I like to hurt the characters I like :), Kid Peter Quill, Kraglin centric, Kraglin is badass, Minor Character Death, Mutiny, Ninja Kraglin, Pre-Movie(s), Ravagers - Freeform, Space Battle, The Eclector, They were supposed to just fill up on the supplies and things escalated, Yondu Centric, Yondu sits on his ass and eats cookies all day while Kraglin does all the work, Young Peter, and ventilation system, kree attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2018-12-25 18:11:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12041424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loinski/pseuds/Loinski
Summary: Life in space is not as simple as grocery shopping and everything escalates quickly when the ravagers run into some Kree.Yondu gets stranded on a planet he hates and Kraglin has to work his ass off to solve everything.And on top of it all, the terran needs to go to the bathroom in the middle of an ongoing mutiny





	1. Obstruction

The Eclector had it’s course set for Tambira. It was a small planet just in the right place to be the perfect pit stop for a lot of spaceships on any side of the law needing to restock on food and other supplies. It was one of the ravagers frequent stops in this region.

They were coming up close and Yondu was going over the final things they needed with Kraglin. They were running uncomfortable low on food because they had been busy lately and hadn't have the time to take a detour filling up their cargo hold with other things than shit they could sell. They had not been busy with big jobs, that was partly the reason they had to postpone the restocking too. They had had trouble landing any big and quick jobs so they had been stuck taking tedious small jobs that really was not worth the trouble.

Yondu’s crew was getting grumpy about their situation and things had been tearing at everyone. Yondu himself could feel that it would had been nice to take it slow, going planetside for a while. Like stopping by Contraxia for a couple of days, have some fun with them bots. Truth to be told, they didn’t really had the luxury to do that even after they restock - especially not after they restocked. But when in space, you just can’t make yourself an enemy through robbing all places, sometimes you needed to be a paying customer to have something to return to, even when you were a pira… ravager.

Tambira was finally getting in range enough to have a visual. There were unusually many ships in orbit around the small planet, unusually many really big ships. Yondu squinted at the sight, and nearly choked on his own spit when he recognised the design of the ships. Kree, Kree battle ships and slave ships.

He cursed in a long series of angry clicks and without much more thought turned the ship abruptly.

Kraglin, still standing next to him, putting the last things down on the datapad, and not noticing the Kree in time, stumbled and fell hard on his ass.

Warning signals was blaring out but Yondu ignored them, the ship could take this, better than facing what was now behind them. He hightailed to one of Tambira’s moons, putting the ship in it’s shadow and out of sight from the Kree, praying to a god he didn’t believe in that they hadn’t seen them already.

They weren’t on the Kree’s hit list but that didn’t mean they were not going to start shooting at them if they were in range.

 

“Cap’n?” Kraglin said looking nervous while rubbing his sore ass. All he got as answer was Yondu swerig in Kree instead. Better to insult them in their own language.

 

“Tullk! Get us out of here, I point you were to more specific when I know.” Yondu finally let out while pulling up the closest places except for Tambira to stop for restocking, putting his energy on planning and letting Tullk do the driving.

“Captain, why not wait them out in cover of the moon sir?” Kraglin suggested to him when the ship was moving again.

“We don’t know if they saw us, and I don’t want to stick around long enough to found out, Obfonteri. Besides, did you see the size of that armada? They will empty Tambira and not leave anything left for our cargo hold. And ravagers don’t hide behind a moon and wait for their turn!” he snarled angrily.

Kraglin looked like he was about to say something stupid but he seems to get the subtle hint Yondu’s hand made stroking the outside of his coat on top of his arrow. Kraglin was loyal and never question him but sometimes he could be stupid and blurt out things he should keep to himself. Yondu was not in the mood for that right now. He didn’t want to admit it but his scars hurt, they always did at the sight of Kree slave ships, and he had to mentally fight himself to maintain his strong and confident captain posture and not fall into old memories.

“Cap’n, how about Rexhar?” Kraglin said in a way to disarm the tension between them.

Yondu grunted half in annoyance and half in confirmation that he heard him.

He quickly put the planet up on the datapad, even if he already knew all he wanted to know about it.

“You know I don’t like that planet, it’s too much of a hazel to deal there” he murmured more to himself than to Kraglin while calculating how long it would take them to get there.

 

The tension in Kraglin’s shoulders seemed to ease and he step closer to Yondu again after the falling on his ass incident. He stopped slightly to the right and behind his captain, in the spot where he belonged.  

“It’s the closest from here, and that would still need us to start rationing the food and water, sir.”

Kraglin was right, Yondu wished he wasn’t. The crew would not be happy about having their food rationed and they were already agitated as it was. Yondu got a prickeling feeling on the back of his neck, like the feeling before a storm. He tried to shake it of, not much he could do about their current situation, they just had to deal with it.

Cutting down on the showering would probably be met well by the fitly bunch though.

“Alright. Tullk, Rexhar it is”

“Aye aye, sir”

***

Yondu didn't like to stock up on Rexhar. It was a small planet, to the point where it probably wouldn’t count as a planet if you went down in details. Definitely much smaller than Tambira. The worst part of it though wasen’t its size but the fact that the majority of the planet was in the possession of one man, a man they would need approval from before they could start trading. Yondu normally didn’t had problem getting that approval, but it always took a lot of time and patience that he did not have. He often had to spend a couple of days planetside until the man, Rextar III, had play through his reportage of excuses, protocol, bureaucracy and pleasantries and agreed to trade with them.

He didn’t really had that time right now, but he didn’t have a choice either. The days extra it had taken them to go to their new destination had put everyone on edge. It felt like he did nothing else than to bark, threaten and whistle to break up fights all day. Food rations made crew irritable and things was brewing in the corners and whispers quieted when he walked close. The prickeling in the back of his neck was more intense than before, maybe they would stop by Contraxia anyway just to avoid a mutiny?

Some of the crew, more specific a guy that called himself Club, not his real name but he had a really big club that he was proud of, had made a serious and loud point about that they really should carry out the treat of eating Quill. There had been a lot of agreeing voices, it had taken Yondu a lot more than usual to quiet them down and make them return to their posts. Quill had disappeared after that. Yondu had been a bit worried that some of the crew had actually disobey him concerning Quill even after he threatened them. He had sent Kraglin looking for the terran that had been found in the boys room blasting his music at full volume. Kraglin had had that uncomfortable look on his face when he returned to his post a lot later, a look he often hand when the kid had been crying his eyes out.

Club was problematic, usually causing scenes but more now than ever. Kraglin hated him, he knew, the man was loud and noisy and Kraglin didn’t trust him. Yondu guessed those feelings for the man was more due to the fact that he had a tendency to spook Kraglin. More than once it had happen that Yondu and his first mate had been standing and discussing things and Club would come out of nowhere, and when really close shouting any of their names depending on which one he was looking for, acting like he was their best friend. So he often spooked the poor boy, who did not like sudden loud noises. Yondu usually stood close enough to Kraglin to feel him jolt back, his face making that twitch that looked like half a smile, half a snarl. Yondu always subtly put a hand on Kraglin’s arm, stopping him from pulling one of his knife or gun against the noise in pure reflex. Club would not had appreciated that, not getting that it was himself causing it to happen.

Yondu shook his head to focus on the present instead. It was getting late and he had long passed the ending of his shift, but that was the life of the captain. They were closing in on Rexhar and since Raxtar III took his sweet time anyway there were no reason for them to wait till they got their beauty sleep. Besides, he needed to talk to Kraglin about the last changes he made. He had decided to let Kraglin stay on the ship to have somewhat of a authority left on the ship. Normally it was him and Kraglin that went down to the planet to talk the man into letting them trade. But the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach and de tingling on the back of his neck had made him reconsider. Kraglin would stay and Yondu would take more men than usual down to the planet with him. He had learned the hard way in life to not ignore his instincts.

“Kraglin!” he called when he found his first mate making sure the shuttle was prepared for departure.  
  
Yondu would had prefered to take a M-ship but Raxtar III was very uptight about letting a “war machine” land on the planet before he had decided that they were clear to trade with.

“Yes cap’n?”

“I have decided that I’m going to take more men with me down this time, I want my best and most loyal crew with me as backup” he said when he had reached him.

“Yes cap’n!” Kraglin answered, giving him the ravagersalute, stretching to his full length and looking proud to serve.

“We will probably need more time than usual, Rextar is not going to be easy to deal with since he should have figured out that I chose other trading places than him, and also because he’s a jackass. Just put the Eclector in orbit around the planet until I contact you.”

“eh… yes captain?” Kraglin said and looked a bit confused.

“what!?” Yondu demanded impatiently.

“You want me to stay on the Eclector?” Kraglin said uncertain, his shoulders slumping.

“Did I stutter Orbfonteri?”  
  
Yondu’s patience was wearing really thin by now, he was not in the mood for a extra thick headed Kraglin today.

“N-no sir! Sorry captain, of course, keep the ship in orbit, got it!” Kraglin answered quickly and thumped his chest again. It wasn’t with the same enthusiasm. Yondu gave him a critical look, but Kraglin didn’t meet his eyes, he just stared down at the floor instead.

“And watch after the brat, I want a ship to return to” he added as an afterthought. He didn’t say out loud that he may had referred to somebody else then the kid with that last part, the rest of the crew was coming towards them.  

Kraglin just gave a short nod to show that he heard, still not looking at Yondu.

Yondu didn’t understand what was up with that weird look, it was like he had told him he had scrub duty or something. Maybe he should put him on scrub duty? Would teach him to appreciate what he had.

“Captain, we are ready to go”

“Good, let’s go!”

***

  
It was always worse than he remembered, being polite and nice. Raxtar III had not been pleased with them arriving so suddenly, and he was not pleased with how many men Yondu brought down with him.  
  
Yondu carefully stroke outside his coat, feeling the arrow through the thick leather. Raxtar had as usual ordered that all weapons be left on the Eclector. Kraglin usually manage to sneak some knifes in anyway, and if not, Raxtar’s silverware had a tendency to disappear. Thankfully Raxtar wasn't a very bright man and he hadn't figured out that Yondu could use his arrow without a bow. Still, he tried to keep the arrow hidden as much as possible to not draw attention to in and risking it getting confiscated. He really wanted to use it right now though. It was a abstinence, not forming his lips and pressing air through them whenever he wanted was torture. It wasn't made better by Raxtar himself yapping about... about…  
Yondu honestly didn’t know, he forgotten to listen for the last fifteen minutes.  
  
It was good that he had a bunch of people with him that could distract Raxtar so he did not notice Yondu’s lack of focus. It was the usual anyway, Raxtar played mad about them coming, played insulted that they didn’t come more often, and served seventeen different cakes and other sweets with followed by a obligatory stroll in the garden.  
  
Yondu was about to whistle his arrow and end the torture and let his men starve to death rather than negotiate with the man. He was in the middle of his arrow fantasy, which may or may not had involving him spearing the ugly weird stuff head Raxtar had mounted on the wall just for the fun of it and replacing it with Raxtar’s head, when his comm sparkle to life.

 

He saw that it was Kraglin which made him frown in annoyance. Even if he was thankful for a distraction right now he had told the boy that he was going to contact him, not the other way around. Kraglin knew how Raxtar could be, getting a call when he was talking about some knitted table cloth he had just bought could make him dismiss the whole trade.

The man had gotten totally quiet and was staring at him, all of his men was staring at him too. Yondu very slowly, while looking Rextar straight in the eye, very deliberately obviously pushed the answer button on his comm. He was glad he had not just dismissed the call.

 

“Captain! We are under attack!” a very distressed Kraglin shouted as soon as the call came through.

 

“What!” Yondu immediately sat up from his slouch in the big fluffy gold colored sofa he had been sitting in.

 

“I think it’s the Kree from earlier sir! It seems like we where followed by the ones from Tambira, or at least a part of them!”  
  
The whole picture then shook and he could here Kraglin swear over the warning signals blaring out.

 

“We are taking heavily fire sir, they aren't that many but they come fully loaded. I have ordered the M-ships to counter attack.”

 

“You been followed by Krees!? Oh no, definitely not, you are not facing them off outside of my planet!” Raxtar suddenly shouted.

 

“Get your damn ship out of my orbit Udonta or you will never trade here again!” he hissed

 

Yondu gave it a second thought.

 

“Cap’n!” Kraglin shouted after a extra hard shook of the comms signal, nearly losing connection.

 

“You heard him Kraglin, take her away from orbit, engage in battle. I don’t want to see a single Kree when I get of this planet.”

 

“Aye aye, sir!”

 

Kraglin’s last words before he broke the connection so he could focus on the battle instead.

Yondu gritted his teeth, this was not how he had hoped this day would go.  
  


***  


They had been taken by surprise. Nothing the last days had indicated that they had been followed. The Krees must have been staying just out of range and manage to catch up when they stopped outside Raxhar. Wasn’t that hard to figure out where they had been headed of course, if they didn’t stop at Tambira this was the most logical choice.

 

Kraglin cursed again when the ship shook violently nearly knocking him to the floor. Of course they had to attack when the captain and all of their best crew was not around.  
He pull the lever to increase the speed. They were no longer in orbit around Raxhar but he still wanted to take them further out as to not endanger the trade deal, after this fight they would need it desperately.

 

“Where are those M-ships!? Get your sorry asses moving!” Kraglin shouted in the speakers for the entire Eclector.  


A bad hit to the front, things that supposed to be attached wasn’t it anymore and Kraglin decided it was time for serious measurements and hit the lever hard, they needed to create some distance and giving the M-pilots time to get the their ships up and running.

 

It turned into a chase, stars was blazing pass in ridiculous speeds but the Kree still got in several hits. Kraglin did a surprise maneuver and managed to get several of the Kree fighters within line for their canons. He whooped in joy when they quietly exploded at the same time their M-ships got out to face of the rest.  
  


“Eh, Obfonteri?” one of the comm control people shouted.  
  


“Yeah!”  
  


“We don’t have any contact with the M-ships”  
  


“What?!” Kraglin shouted over another hit.  
  


“It looks like the transmitter has been damage, we can’t reach out to them, we only have short range comm left.”  
  


“Well, then we better hope they understand where we need them to be” Kraglin muttered.  
  
  
It looked like they started to gain control over the situation though, the crew knew what to do even without orders hailing over them.

He had hardly finished that thought before one of the Kree ships that was just taken out by one off their own spiral out of course and hit the Eclector. The impact was hard, the whole ship shook worse than before, and then, the lights went out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Club to be Taserface but then I also wanted to keep this as much aligned with canon as possible but that would had limited my plot so random oc it is.
> 
> \- 
> 
> The spooked Kraglin part is definitely inspired from a post I saw on Tumblr from the first movie where Rocket attacks the Eclector. (you have done me a frighten)
> 
> -
> 
> I have no idea how the whole “call one another in space” works really. My thought in my fic is that they have long distance comm they call through on the ships and short discante that are more like a better version of walkie talkies.


	2. Lost signal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE!
> 
> I unfortunately added some more text in the previous chapter so if you are on of the 68 who read this fic the day before I published this chapter you have missed the bit at the bottom after the last ***
> 
> I really hate to go back and edit big things after I published but I noticed that the flow of the text did not go well so I had to

They had managed to defeat the Kree, but at a high cost.

They had lost M-ships, more than Kraglin wanted to count, more than he wanted to tell the captain about. But he knew he would do it anyway, and he knew the captain would get angry and disappointed at him.  
He had wanted to show him that he could trust in him, that he was amongst the best in the crew so Yondu wouldn’t hesitate to bring him with him next time.  
Yondu’s words still hurt more than Kraglin wanted to admit. He had racked his brain under the hours he spent helping the engineers get everything working again. He could not recall that he had done anything lately to anger Yondu and make him distrust him with being capable of watching his back down at the planet. Then again, Yondu was hard to read, maybe he had been angry about something Kraglin hadn’t understand he had done wrong. That had happen before and kraglin easily counted them to be some of the worser days in his life.

He grit his teeth where he was elbow deep in one of the engines. He didn’t want to think about that, he only needed to focus on trying to fix the mess he had made this time so that he did not earn a arrow through his head. He knew that it wasn't his fault the Kree had attacked, but he had been in charge when they lost those M-ships and had taken the damage to the Eclector. A damage that more and more started to look like it would take days to repair.  
  
Everyone was working overtime to  get the power back on. The emergency engines had not been damage thankfully so they still had air, gravity, emergency light and some basic heat against the cold of the blackness around them. But they were sitting ducks, no way of moving, no weapons  and not even a long distance comm. They still got most of the M-ships.  
They could send one of them to Rexhar but Kraglin was afraid that would be seen as a hostile act.  
  
Kraglin got a bad conscience remembering the fact that Yondu had not been contacted and informed about their current situation. For all the captain knew they could had been killed by the Kree.  
But it was still highly probable that the rest of the kree fleet would come after them so the first mate could not spear a single one of the M-ships as long as the Eclector did not have any power.

Kraglin cursed when he couldn't get the the spare part he was fiddling with into its slot. He was exhausted and basically saw double by now. It had been the end of his shift when they had approached Rexhar and by now he was well on his way on the end of the second shift.

He took a deep breath and accepted defeat, he was to tired to be working with small parts. He gave it up to one of the engineers and started to walk back in the direction of the captain's quarters.

Before he made it back to bed he heard an angry voice up ahead. Rounding the corridor he came face to face with Club and whole bunch of his friends, not the kind of people he wanted to meet right now.

”Obfonteri! Where have you been?!” Club said loud and angry.

”In the engine room” Kraglin answer shortly between gritted teeth.  
He looked at them suspicious. There was to much too be done for all of them to just hang around and some of them looked strangely… guilty?

“I must say you are doing a shit job taking care of the Eclector while the captain is gone, not that he did any especially good job himself, letting a incompetent dirt like you become a first mate, only landing shit jobs that don’t pay and letting the crew starv.” Club said and smirked at him.  
  
Kraglin started at him for half a second, dumbfounded with what he had said. Club never showed him any respect, especially not when the captain was not around, but this was a lot above meaning looks, quiet remarks and shoves in the korridor. Then the insult to his captain register in his brain and Kraglin got furious.  
He snarled and pulled out one of the many knifes that he always carried with him. But before he could sink it in Club’s throat he had eight blasters pointed at his own head.

“Oh, and by the way, I think me and my crew have decided to do something about this, and start a mutiny” Club continued like nothing happened. He then smiled, showing all his weirdly green colored teeth that was a known trait for his species.  

”Hey! What’s going on?!”

Somebody shouted down the corridor. Pulling eight guns against the first mate was a bit suspicious and seemingly not all was with Club on this mutiny.

Chaos erupted when those loyal to Club started to fire at the new arrivals. In the process their focus was shifted from Kraglin and he used that to slit the throats of two of the mutineers and gut a third. By then the ones coming to his help where dead and seeing he was about to get all attention to himself, Kraglin swiftly threw himself into another corridor and started running.  
Shots was whizzing past him but luckily enough the mutineers had as much capacity to aim as they had brain.

He quickly ducked into a corridor that was not used often and took a shortcut through something that on the outside just looked like any other door but lead to a staircase. He had been on the Eclector for many years, Club and his pack they had just picked up on their last recruiting drive, they stood no chance against him.

Their angry voices started to wear off and he slowed down to a light jog. His thoughts were going a mile a minute, trying to come up with what he should do and who he could trust. At this point no one. Probably Peter of course but that was… Peter!

Kraglin swore and started to run in the direction the terran’s room was.  


***

  
Kraglin barreled into Peter’s room when he finally got there. Luckily the terran was there, looking at him terrified with that sudden intrusion, headphones on his head as usual. Quill had been scared when the Kree attacked and the power went out. He had been coming running to the bridge but Kraglin had ordered him back to his room to get him out of the way.

Kraglin took a deep breath in relief when he saw that the terran was safe and leaned forward with his hands on his knees, trying to calm his harsh breathing.

“Kraglin? What are you doing here? What's going on?” Peter asked worried and pulled the headphones of and put them around his neck.

“Mutiny. No time to talk, take your music box and some blankets and follow me” Kralin said with his stern voice.

Quill didn’t argue and just did as told, realising it was really serious.

They sneaked down the corridor, listening for sound of approaching mutineers. The boy kept close behind Kraglin. They came to one of the bigger parts of the ventilation system and Kraglin pop the hatch.

“Why can’t I just stay in my room and lock the door?” Peter whined when a Orloni ran out from the darkness.

“Because they will have all the time in the world to work open that door without captain here. And trust me, they would try, and they would succeed. Now get in” Kraglin answered hushed.

Kraglin pushed the terran in and then crawled in backwards after him. He put the hatch back on and backed up until he came to an intersection that he could turn around in.

“Where to?” Peter whispered.

”Forward, and then left the second intersection” Kraglin mumbled back and lit a small lamp on his watch.

They started to crawl as quietly as they could. It was not easy with the blankets he made the kid take, but they would going to need it, it was cold in here.

Kraglin had a special place in mind deep in the core of the system that would take them past smaller parts that would stop most of the crew. He had found it once when he was younger, long before he was first mate and often ended up having to fix things because he was skinny and could fit into places that most couldn't. He had gotten wider over his shoulders, not much but noticeable in some of the tighter places.

It felt like they were in there for hourers but in the end they finally came to a small hatch. Kraglin opened it and they crawled in with blankets and all into a small room. The room was less than 2x2m and it was only high enough to barely sit upright in. He didn’t know what it had been used to before, it seemed to long have outlived it purpose and last time he had been here it had looked untouched for decades.

Kraglin took the blankets and put them in a nest on the floor.

“You should try to get some sleep. Here, take this, just in case” Kraglin whispered and gave Quill a knife.

“The door is possible to lock from the inside, don’t let anybody in here except of me alright?” 

“You're going to leave me all alone?” Peter squeaked terrified.

“Husch. Just for while, I’m first mate, this ships is my responsibility when capt’n aint around, I need to stop this mutiny.” Kraglin said confidently, no rooms for argument in his voice.

The Xandarian made to leave, then came to think of something.

“Be as quiet as possible. We are deep in but sound can travel far. I’m going to turn the sound on my comm off, you should do that too. They may try to use that otherwise to locate us. I will still see if you call me. But you know, it may take a while for me to answer if I’m in a tight spot so don’t freak out.” He said and muted his comm.

“Okay” Quill said sadly.

“Hey, don’t worry kid, it’s going to be fine, just wait here and listen to your music and I will sort this mess up” Kraglin whispered with a small smile and ruffled Peter’s hair.

When he got out of the room and had made sure Quill locked the door his smile turned to murder.

***

Kraglin used the ventilation system to his advantage to get through the ship unnoticed. He stopped and listened at every hatch until he heard something down the corridor that sounded a lot like mutiny talk. He carefully opened the hatch, crawled out and started sneaking down the corridor. He came up behind two Stygians that had not noticed him yet. He didn’t gave them the time. He slit the throat of the first one. The second one had time to turn around and stare at her friend in horror before Kraglin killed her too. Adrenaline was surging through his body, his exhaustion forgotten for the moment.

As quiet as he came, as quiet he left, back into the ventilation system again. The only sign he had been there was the two bodies laying on the floor.

Kraglin had manage to take out some more of the mutineers the same way. They hadn’t seen him coming and that had been their mistake.

But the adrenaline had started to fade by now and he realiste that he could not go on any longer without rest. He had one last thing to do on his list though. His stomach had reminded him that he hadn't had anything to eat since dinner yesterday. He had completely forgotten to eat after the Kree had attacked when he had been busy trying to make everything work again.  
  
That tended to happen, him forgetting to eat on time because he was occupied with something, Yondu usually took a round and came by him, to make sure he got to the mess hall in time. When he didn’t Kraglin mostly just got himself a bowl of soup when he remembered that he forgotten. He liked soup.

***

When he saw the ransacked storage room he barked a bitter laugh. They were all idiots and if they did not want to die, they soon would be cannibals too. Kraglin wasn’t sure it was cannibalism if they were from different species but he knew that him and the terran would be first on the menu.  
  
He quickly went through the overturned boxes and smashed crates. He manage to find some loose things the crew had dropped in their eagerness to get everything, and a few cans of things that didn’t taste good so they had been left. Kraglin was glad for that, It was some of the more nutritious things they had that Yondu always was fussing about to get.  
  
Kraglin wanted nothing more than to let his sharp metal capped teeth sink into the can and rip it open. But he had a terran to look after and Yondu would be furious at him if he had let the kid go hungry. He stuffed everything in a bag and tied it at his hip, he had no doubt about him needing to have his hands free on the way back.

That proven right as soon as he got out of the storage room. Before he had time to get inside the ventilation system again he ran into more mutineers and he lost his upper hand with the surprise stealth attack since there were nowhere to hide in the corridor.  
  
He took a left hook to his jaw when he tried to steer the gun pointed at him in the other way. His vision got a bit out of focus for a moment but he aim his knife at the big dark blurry thing and manage to sink it in the leg of a Sneeper. He ripped the gun from the other when she got distracted by her friends scream. He shot the woman in her face when she refocused at him and then he quickly sprinted to the hatch to the ventilation system. He just manage to close it when a whole heard of people came running down the corridor being alerted by the shout and gunfire.

“What happened!?”

“Are they dead?”

“They are dead”

“Who did that!?”

“Kraglin still on the loose, looks like it could have been him”

“Well, where did he go? He can’t just had disappeared in thin air?”

“Fan out, look for him!”

That was Kraglin cue to slowly back away deeper into the ventilation system. He had manage to see their faces through the grid of the hatch, he knew who they were. He would get back for them on a better time. Right now he needed something to eat and to rest.

He painstakingly crawled back to the room he put the kid in. All this crawling in would get boring real quick real soon.

 

“Hey, kid, open up, it’s me” Kraglin whispered and tapped on the hatch.

“Who is me?” a muted voice was heard on the other side.

“Kraglin”

“What's the password?”

“We didn’t agree on any password?” Kraglin said confused.

He heard a click and the hatch opened, letting out a small light from the glow orb Kraglin had once given Peter when he had a nightmare about space swallowing him in its darkness.  

“We should totaly agree on a password. Something cool. Or like a riddle? And change it every hour in case it got jeopardised. Like something from James Bond?” the kid said shining up at the endless possibilities.

Kraglin huffed. Well, the kid seemed to be alright at least.

“I don’t know who Jam’s Bond is. I brought food and water” Kraglin answered and pointed at the bag at his hip.

“Yes! I’m starving” the terran boy nearly shouted, earning him a cuff at the head from Kraglin who crept in inside with him.

 

He opened one of the cans and gave the kid two thirds of it. He knew it was stupid, he needed the energy if he was going to keep up the fighting. But Peter had given him that big eyed hopeful look on the aspects of food  and he had given him more than he should so not to disappoint him. The kid made a face at the taste but didn’t say anything, he at least knew how serious things was. Kraglin ruffled his hair in appreciation.

When they had finished Kraglin tucked himself down amongst the blankets. He had to fold himself to fit in the tight space. Peter laid down with his back against his back so to avoid Kraglin’s bony knees. The Xandarian was so exhausted he fell asleep within seconds.

***

“Kraglin?”

“mhmmm…”

“I need to pee”

“hmm…what?”

“I really need to pee”

Kraglin opened his eyes and looked around bleary finding Peter staring at him uncomfortable.

”Can’t you hold it?”

”It’s been hours!”

“Alright, alright, keep it down.” Kraglin said. He really wanted to stretch his sore muscles but the place was to cramped to do that. He scratched his head and looked at the time. He had gotten 3 hours of sleep. Great.

“Okay, let's go, we take the ventilation, they lead there. You are going to have to be quiet and really carefull”

“I will” Quill answered determined and put his headphones around his neck.

“Got the knife I gave you?”

“Yes”

“Good, let's go.”

It went surprisingly well. Kraglin had expected the kid to be clumsy, like most kids. Not that Kraglin had very much knowlege of kids, he tried to stay away from them, but still. They got to the part of the ventilation system connected to the bathroom. Kraglin was certain of it, as he had said to the kid, the very distinctive odor that they had followed the last couple of hundreds of meters had made it not so hard to guess. 

The hatch was in the ceiling. Kraglin opened it and carefully lowered himself down until he hange from the edge, long legs dangling. When he was certain no one was in the room he let go and landed quietly and with far more grace anyone would ever believe him beeing able too. He helped the kid down after he locked the door to the room.

“Be quick about it, we don’t want to be caught with our pants literally down.” Kraglin said and unzipped his jumpsuit. Might as well go too now when he was here.

The terran tried to pout at being reprimanded but he was struggling to much to hid a smile at some weird mental picture Kraglin really didn’t want to know about.

 

When they were done Kraglin shoved the kid up into the ventilation system again. Not without trouble, he got a loose foot in his face and the had to struggle to not sink his teeth into it as retaliation. He unlocked the door so no one would know they there and then heaved himself up through the hole in the ceiling.

The Xandarian made sure the terran got back properly and then he tried to leave.

 

“Wait!” Quill shouted.

“Shhh! What did I say about being quiet? Kraglin whispered franatacaly.

“Yeah, sorry. But you’re leaving again?” kid stage whispered looking halv remorseful and half annoyed.

“Yeah, You woke me, now I might as well continue being up”

“But it’s boring being in here alone” the brat muttered.

  
“Well, if you want something to do, I can give you up to the mutineers, I’m sure they want to play with you” Kraglin answered and smirked at Quill’s terrified face.  
  
That hopefully would made him stay in here while Kraglin himself went playing with the trash. He hoped he would be able to take care of them all and take back the ship before he managed to get himself killed. He would hate to die knowing the captain was disappointed in him. Or more disappointed in him than before was more correctly since Yondu had somehow not wanted him with him on Rexhar. Kraglin shook that thought away, he would need to be focused if he was going to make up for his mistakes whatever they were.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had wanted to use more slang and writing like they talk because I love to read fan fics that does that but I’m not from an English speaking country so yeah, I’m probably are not even going to try.  
> Also I had wanted to use space/GOTG related words, like Kraglin would not say “they were sitting ducks” because he would not know what a duck is but it’s too much work to come up with something that the reader still can translate to duck to get the picture. 
> 
> -
> 
> I believe that Kraglin probably have a bad self esteem. Because you probably have not had the best of lives if you end up as a ravager but also because Yondu must be a pain in the ass to work with. He’s volatile, stubborn and emotionally constipated. That must put you in a lot of emotional stress as a first mate.


	3. Bad memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A filler chapter with background to show why people feel like they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda nervous about this chapter because I'm afraid people will hate it. I like to read and write about abusive relationships but maybe some will think this is a bit much? Yondu did spend 20 years as a battle slave which should leave him kinda mentally unstable and violent.

It was late now. One of Raxhar’s four moons was hanging full in the sky and bathing the landscaped garden in a white light. Yondu was in the room Raxtar had borrowed him until they could sort out the slight little problem with the fact that Yondu had no idea where his ship was currently. He got no contact with Kraglin anymore which worried him. No contact usually meant that things had gone bad. Yondu rolled his shoulders to make them relax from the tense posture he had slipt into.

Raxtar III wasn't easy to deal with on normal days and bringing half of a armada of Krees to his planet didn’t exactly change that to Yondu’s advantage. It had taken a lot of cajoling and a lot of something down the line of “we are honest ravagers that wanted to deal but got attacked! Don’t you have any security for your customers?”. The last part was the one thing that made Raxtar eventually calm down and work with Yondu. He managed to land the deal and had given a list of things they wanted to Raxtar’s assistant. The man would made sure to prepare everything for loading as soon as the Eclector was back. He was sure it was going to come back, he was confident Kraglin was a competent first mate.  


Thinking about him made Yondu remember the face he had made just before he had left for Raxhar. He hadn’t had time to figure out what Kraglin had thought at that moment, no time to press him for an answer and Yondu may have been in a piss poor mood.  


Yondu had seen that look on his first mate before. He knew that, but he had seen it less and less over the years, Kraglin gaining more and more confidence that Yondu appreciated his work and would not throw him out the airlock if he so much as breathe the wrong way. Kraglin wasn’t a very brave man, he didn’t like standing in everyone's attention, didn’t like loud sudden noises. He hadn't even wanted to be first mate, had told Yondu that he should pick someone else, someone older with more experience that wouldn't fuck things up. Yondu hadn’t listened to him, which wasn’t unusual but mostly because Kraglin was wrong. Kraglin might had been young but he had been on the ship longer than most of the crew. He might not be leader material but he was good at repeating orders and good with the mind-numbing task that Yondu couldn't bother himself with. And to be honest, he was one of few people that Yondu trusted letting him watch his back, one of few that he did not get the need to look over his shoulder having him there.

The thought of his first mate insecurity made him think of a time before he had promoted him, a time around just a couple of months after they picked up the terran.

It had been long enough for Quill to come out of his “I’m just going to cry all time and scream when you come near me” stage and moved on to starting to be more curious. Which that particular day really had been more annoying than the first stage. Yondu had been really pissed off and had had it with the ruckus the kid was making. He had made his normal threat about eating the boy but put a lot more fire in it. The kid had seemed to get that the centaurian was seriously tired of him and had quiet down. Yondu had told no one in particular to take Quill away, he did not want to see him more.

When the boy was gone Yondu could focus on what he was doing. He realised he had been about to speak to Kraglin about some details on a plan but Kraglin had vanished from the room.

“Oblo, where did Kraglin go?”

“To the kitchen Captain, like you said?”

“What? What do you mean, like I said?”

“With the terran, sir?”

Yondu suddenly got a horrible cold feeling in his gut, and a disturbing mental image of himself asking Kraglin where Peter was at dinner, about at the same time he fished out a tiny little hand from his own bowl. That imaged struck to close to other tiny little bodies, to soon of a reminder of what he had done.

No, no, not this one too, this one he was going to save!

Yondu just up and left without another word, leaving Oblo staring after him wondering what happened. The dark and long corridors of the Eclector seemed endless and he was starting to imagining seeing red terran blood everywhere. His breathing was erratic, more because of the thought of what scene he might face in the kitchen when he got there than of the fact he was running now.

When he finally came to the kitchen, he skidded to a halt. The chef and Kraglin had been talking to each other, probaby about how to cook the terrified and crying terran child Kraglin was holding in a iron grip.

“Yondu! Help me! I don’t want to be eaten! I promise I’ll behave! Peter cried, big tears and snot running down his face.

Kraglin looked up and saw Yondu, a surprised “Cap’n?” slipped out of him at the sight of the murder in Yondu’s eyes.

Yondu didn’t think, he just reacted. He was furious at Kraglin for scaring him senseless, he thought he lost Peter! What a hell had Kraglin been thinking?

With a snarl Yondu ripped Peter away from Kraglin who looked absolutely bewildered to Yondu’s behavior. It made him even angrier and when he had put the terrified terran out of harm's way he quickly turned to Kraglin again, walking the few steps that lay between them with a predator's certain steps. Kraglin was the one looking terrified now, taking a step back, hands up in protection, a squeaky “Cap’n!?” before Yondu’s fist connected with his face.

The arrow sat forgotten in its holster at his hip, this was too personal, he needed to feel his fists making physical contact with Kraglin’s body again and again. Blue blood colored the scene, mingling with the sound of pained cries. Yondu came to his senses, standing wide apart and panting hard, Kraglin’s trembling body at his feet.

He did not pay it any more thought, turning away without another look. He walked over to the crying terran child and warped his arms around him, lifting him up without effort and carrying him all the way back to his quarters.

The present Yondu wince at the memory. Another thing he was not proud over. Kraglin had just misunderstood him, he had thought Yondu wanted the terran served for dinner, thought Yondu had gotten tired of his toy making too much ruckus and finally given the order.

The centaurian had realised it days later when he had calmed down enough to think things over properly. The way he had said the things he said, Kraglin’s eagerness to follow his orders. The memory of kraglin’s terrified face and the blood on Yondu’s hands. Yondu had sign sitting there in the captain's chair. He did not seems to do nothing but mistakes these days. He had not meant to hurt him, he had just been afraid. That was what sentiment did to you, it made you irrational.

It had still taken him a couple of days after that realisation to figure out that he was the one that had to take the first step in this mess. Kraglin probably still thought he was mad at him.

He needed to find the boy, had not seen him since he hurt him come to think about it. He needed to explain to him, tell him everything had been a misunderstanding.

He had left the ship to Tullk as usual when it was time for dinner. Stalking the corridors in the hunt for the ravagers youngest member, apart from Quill, Yondu had to look a long time. Kraglin could be really hard to find if he wanted to hide. His height was a bit misleading, but the Xandarian had no problems cramming himself into small nooks and corners. The only one beasting him at that was Quill.  
  
He could call him on the comm, asking where he was or even demanding his presence, but he did not want to do that.

 

He found him in the end, far away from the bridge, in the lowest depths of the Eclector, doing maintenance work on one of the smaller engines that supplied oxygen in case of an emergency. It was necessary work, but not something you volunteer to do. Yondu frowned at the kid’s face, still some bruises and cuts visible even after this time. Shit, he really had done a number on him had’t he?

 

Kraglin had noticed him. He had noticed him as soon as he entered the room. He looked at him warily, unsure what he was going to do to him. Guilty Yondu reach out to touch his bruised cheek. Kraglin flinched back terrified before he could touch him. He guess he earned that, but it still hurt.

“Shh, don’t worry, I won’t hurt you” Yondu whispered softly like you would to a scared animal. He moved his hand down to Kraglin’s arm instead, slowly so no to spook him. Kraglin was still very tense when his hand lightly landed on his shoulder, but he didn’t move away.

”I didn’t really mean to hurt you before, I just got so angry because I thought you disobeyed me”

”I didn’t mean to disobey you captain, I thought you wanted me to take the terran to the kitchen. I’m Sorry.” Kraglin answered quietly, trying to hide that his voice was trembling. He kept his eyes glued to the floor, refusing to meet his captain’s red eyes. He looked ashamed.

The older man sighed heavily.

“I know that now. I’m... look, just... let us forget that this happened okay? We don’t speak more of it and you comes back to the mess with me and we sit down and eat dinner like any other day, right?”

Kraglin just nodded carefully, still without looking at Yondu. The centaurian gave his arm a light squeeze and then walked out of there. He knew Kraglin was following him dutifully but he moved so quietly that Yondu had to fight all his instincts telling him to look over his shoulder.

When he sat down at the table Kraglin was there next to him like always.  
  


It had still taken a while after that until Kraglin let down his guard enough around Yondu so things could truly go back to normal.  
  
  


The present Yondu, still standing by the window at Rextar’s home staring out at the landscaped gardens, contemplated that memory. That’s what got him to think about it, that’s where he had seen Kraglin making that face he made when Yondu had told him he was going to stay at the Eclector. He had looked uncertain, unsure of his place and what was expected of him and what Yondu wanted. Yondu groaned and bumped his head against the glas, a smnd he may have been  
all plink escaping from the contact of the implant. He felt like he should mentally slap himself when he remembered their conversation.   

 

_‘I want my best and most loyal crew with me as backup’_

_‘You want me to stay on the Eclector?’_

_‘Did I stutter Obfonteri?’_

 

Why did he always have to mess things up? He knew Kraglin didn’t have the best of confidences but Yondu still always seemed to forget that. Although Kraglin did his best to not show it, his work as a ravager first mate required that, but Yondu knew him, he knew and he should have formulated his word more carefully. He touch his comm, pulling up Kraglin’s name, first on the list, and was just about to hit the call button when he remembered that Kraglin would not answer, and that he might be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter some how make me feel like it’s too raw but also to ooc and fluffy/”talking about feelings” in the end? As always I post it anyway and try not to overanalyze it because that just make me feel bad.


	4. Gather your strength

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I googled it and apparently a prison on a pirate ship is called "hold"?

Kraglin nearly died.

If he had been just a little bit slower he would have had a nice blaster hole right through his chest. He snarled and slammed the head of his nearly killer against the wall. On the second attempt a nasty crunch was heard. Kraglin dropped the body on the floor and quickly moved down the corridor.

He had forsaken the ventilation system for now, these parts was too small for him to crawl through without risking ending up stuck. That would have been a real nice picture wouldn't it? The mutineers coming by and seeing him hanging there, stuck with his ass on display.

 

It was important that he move in these parts of the ship. After a full day of crawling around offing suspected mutineers he had begun listening in on the talking for real. It was obvious he had made a ruckus, there were a lot of talk about him. He had made them real pissed off and they were furious that they still hadn’t caught him. Some of the more superstitious crew was whispering that he was no beeing of physical form but a shadow, a ghost of black mist that crept around and anyone unfortunate to met him died a horrible death. Kraglin had smirked in pride at that. It was ridiculous, these men had work with him a long time, they had seen him eat, take a piss, getting yelled at by Yondu and probably seen him scratch his balls too.

 He was just a tall scrawny Xandarian that nowadays was covered in dust from all the crawling in the ventilation. It was still nice though, to be feared, he didn’t got that very often. Yondu use to say he had his look against him. He couldn't really help it, looking tired and bored was his natural face.

 

The reason why he was now moving slowly down the corridor and hide in the shadows was not to scare superstitious crew, even it that would have been fun. Kraglin had been tempted to start making weird sounds to freak them out. But if they talked to some of the smarter ones onboard they would probably figure out that he hide in the ventilation and then he would be dead within a day.

No, the reason he abandon cover was because he had overheard that the mutineers had taken prisoners. Apparently they hadn’t talked everyone in on the mutiny plan and the ones that didn’t agree to a “joining the party late” deal had been taken to the hold. Apparently they were going to be sold as slaves to pay for supplies and repairs as soon the mutineers got the ship working again. Kraglins blood had boiled when he had heard that. He had to stop them, he would not be able to see his captain in his eyes if he got crew sold as slaves on his watch. Besides, a bunch of people not on the mutineers side was a very welcoming aspect for him right now. He was tired, all the crawling and fighting took its toll. They had gotten smarter too, more careful which meant more dangerous for Kraglin.

 

He finally made it to the hold. Caqw was standing guard. Kraglin didn’t want to draw attention to the hold. He contacted Caqw on the short frequency from the comm he had stolen from the last person he killed.

 

“Hey Caqw?”

“Yeah, what is it Mortu?”

“I think I saw Kraglin down in sector 45E, want to join me in catching him? Everyone would be mighty impressed if we did. Club might promote one of us to first mate”

“Yeah, that sounds good” Caqw answered after a second contemplating.

He went away in the direction of 45E and Kraglin hurried up to the cells.

“Kraglin! A sight for a sore eye, I thought that was your voice, Caqw is dumber than a pet rock.” Oblo said relieved when Kraglin emerged out of the shadows.

“I brought food and water” Kraglin said hushed and handed the bag to Hagar who tanked him deeply. They probably hadn’t been feed considering the food was all out. Kraglin was all out too, the bag was the same he had found in the storage room. He had left a can with the kid and taken the rest with him after he told the terran about the people that was supposed to be in the hold. They needed it more anyway. Hopefully someone would soon get the engines fixed so they could get out of this mess.

“Now get us out of here boy!” Horuz said through a mouthful.

“Sorry, I’m actually planning on leaving you here” Kraglin answered apologetic.

“What!?” Horuz answered

“Caqw will soon be back and it ain't exactly particular stealthy for all of us to just walk out of here”

“Screw stealth!”

“And that's why you're behind bars and I’m still alive” Kraglin said unamused.

“Aw, come on Kraglin you can’t be serious?”Oblo whined.

“Listen, I’m just here to reconnaissance, I wasn’t even sure you would be here. I will come back tomorrow after I have picked up some guns on the way. Which time would be the best to break you out?"

“When that purple woman, you know, redhead… Wrzu? Picked her up last recruiting round. She got second shift tomorrow and she always sleeps them through, snore real loud. Seems to be one of them species that sleeps real heavy. Horuz threw something at her to make her stop snore yesterday, but she didn’t noticed.” Oblo provided.

“Sounds as good as we get. Tomorrow, we take back the ship.” Kraglin said confident, putting as much authority as a first mate he could muster.  

“Aye!”

***

Yondu was really getting tired of cookies and strolls in the garden by now. Raxtar had suggested that he should buy a new ship, the Eclector probably blown to smithers since they got no contact. But his gut feeling was telling him to wait longer. And it wasn’t like he had the units to by a new ship, those were expensive. He might of course have afford to buy something small. The shuttle they had brought with them wasn’t designed for deep space, just transport between ship and planet.

 

He sighed and leaned back against the fluffy pillows in the bed. It was very early, nearly night still,  but he was restless. He didn’t like sleeping in unfamiliar places, especially without Kraglin watching his back. He looked down on the comm in his hand. He had been trying the comm whenever he got some time to himself. He shrugged his shoulders and tried it again.

It paid off, a crackle and then the signal went through to Kraglin’s comm. Yondu nearly shouted in victory. Then there were a chance that the Eclector still was afloat somewhere. He waited tense for Kraglin to pick up. Signal after signal went through but he didn’t answer. Yondu groaned and broke the connection. After days without contact Kraglin would not just ignore his signal. This was not a good sign.

On a whim he pulled up the second name in his contact list, Quill Peter - Star lord. The screen crackle and then he got the sight of his boy for the first time in several days.

 

“Yondu?” the kid whispered and looked surprised.

“Boy! Finally!” Yondu said and couldn’t stop himself from grinning big, showing every ugly tooth in his mouth. His boy was alive. A big stone fell from his chest and he felt more relaxed that he had been in days.

“Are you okay son?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m bored, and hungry.” Quill said dramatically.

“What are your doing?”

“Just playing a bit. Kraglin want me to be quiet. Not much to do in the ventilation system you know. And we have been in here for days!”

“Who's we?” Yondu asked confused.

“Kraglin and me”

“You’re in the ventilation system together? Kraglin alright?”

“Yeah, I think so, just tired”

“What are you both doing in the ventilation system?

“Oh, just hiding from the mutineers” Peter answered and shrugged his small shoulders.

“The what now? The mutineers? But the Kree? What happened to the Kree?” Yondu asked, getting more and more confused by the minute.

“Oh, them… well, they were defeated.”

“This is confusing. Is Kraglin there? I tried to comm him but he didn’t answer.”

“Ah, he’s asleep. He was tired after being up all night doing … something, he hasn’t said what he actually do all night, just stopping by to check on me and to get some sleep. We have shut off the sound on our communicators to not give our location away”

“Could you wake him up for me?”

“Yeah, on my way.”

 

Yondu got a view of the ventilation when the kid crawled through it. He arrived at a small room with blankets that Yondu recognised as Quill’s own. In the middle of the blanket nest was Kraglin. He was fast asleep and had his nose tucked deep in a fluffy yellow blanket with weird flowers on it that Yondu had found in his closet and given the terran. To be so ugly Kraglin had a habit of looking kind of cute when he slept, cute in a sort of ugly way that is. Yondu guest it was because he let down his guard when he slept, his face looked relaxed and softer.  
Actually, Kraglin looked like shit, more than usual. He had that sort of roughness about him that told Yondu he hadn’t had the time to atleast do a attempt to look presentable. Most people thought Kraglin just woke up and walked out the captain's quarters which was the reason he always looked so sloppy. But really, they had not seen Kraglin when he woke up, he actually spent a lot of time fixing himself in the morning, definitely a lot more than Yondu who just put on is clothes and looked like he had been up for hours and was on his way to a very important meeting. Some was just born unlucky he guessed.

 

Even asleep Yondu could see that Kraglin had bags under his eyes telling him he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. His cheeks looked hollower than usual too. But it was hard to tell through all that messy hair he got going all over his face.

“Hey, Kraglin?” Peter whispered when he sat down next to Yondu’s sleeping first mate.

When he got no reaction he poked Kraglin with his foot.

“mmhm… Kid, if you need to pee again that’s your problem and not mine” Kraglin muttered without open his eyes. He put his nose deeper into the blankets to get away from the pest that would like to be called Star-lord.

“Yondu wants to talk to you”

“What!?” Kraglin said sitting up like he had been electrocuted. He managed to bump his head in the low ceiling and ducked groaning down in the blankets again nursing his sore head. Yondu nearly laughed at his pitiful display.

“The kid told me you got yourself in a pretty deep mess here son, care to explain to me whats going on?” Yondu said instead, saving this perfect taunting material for a time that was less serious.

“Captain!” Kraglin nearly shouted with happiness when he looked up again hearing his voice.

“Hey, why do you tell me to be quiet when you make all that noise” Quill muttered sourly.

“Sorry. Captain” Kraglin whispered instead and looked sheepishly. Yondu just huffed and shook his head.  

“So, what's going on? Start from the beginning.”

Kraglin sigh and took a second to sort his thoughts out, still a bit disoriented after sleep.

“The Kree attacked after you landed on Rexhar cap’n. I’m sure they were a part of the ones we saw at Tambira. They must have seen us before we got in cover of the moon. I guess they had followed us out of our scanners reach, that or they guess where we were heading, not like that was very difficult. We managed to defeat them but we lost some M-ships” Kraglin answered and pausing to nervously gaug Yondu’s reaction.  
It was hard, Yondu just gave him his blank face, hiding his thoughts deep inside him and not looking at Kraglin. His captain maybe could be fast to anger when he was displeased but as often he schooled his expression into a poker face. Had to, from his life experience and being captain it was not good if people could tell what he was thinking. Even if Kraglin had known Yondu for a long time he still could not read him when he did that. It made Kraglin skittish, having to guess what the captain thought about things when that face could mean everything from “all is good” to an arrow in his throat.

Kraglin uncertainly brushed his messy mohawk out of his eyes and continued.

“The Eclector took some heavy damage, sir, we lost power to the big engines, the emergency engines went in so no problem there except that we are sitting ducks. We also lost long distance comm. I guessed they must have fixed that now since you could call us cap’n.”

“They? That would be the mutineers I presume?” Yondu said without a hint of emotion in his voice.

“Yeah” kraglin confessed after he had swallowed hard. A chill of panik went down his back making all his hair stand up.

“Crew have been muttering for a while capt’n, I’m mean… It’s just…” Kraglin trailed off trying to figure out a way to formulate it so it didn’t sound like he accused the underlying irritation on the captain not landing well paid jobs. Club’s words was ringing in his ears. He decided to move on instead.

“Eh… well, Club and some others of his friends decided they had it.  I guess when we could not stop at Tambira and had to put rations on the food, that made them cranky. And then we lost people in the fight… Losing power on the ship was kind of the last push, sir” Kraglin ended, leaving ‘me being a inadequate first mate, this would never had happened if you were here’ unsaid, but Yondu already knew that.

Yondu didn’t say anything. Looked like he hadn’t listened to a single of Kraglin’s words but the Xandarian knew he had and he knew he was processing the information. The tension was killing Kraglin, he wished Yondu would just scream at him and tell him he fucked up and that he was a lousy first mate, tell him he would demote him when he got back and sorted things out himself. He hadn't noticed he trembled until Peter discreetly patted his bony knee in reassurance.

“What’s you plan right now?” The captain finally said looking at Kraglin.

“I found out that the mutineers have taken some of the ones that is not in on the mutiny to the hold, sir. The plan is for me to pick up weapons today and break them out and then we will try to take the ship back. If we succeed we will repair the ship as fast as possible and head back to Rexhar. We are out of food and by now maybe water also so no matter who will win today the Eclector will try to make way to Raxhar to fill up the storage room.” Kraglin answered trying to look alert and ready and not nervus about the shity aspect of him still being alive next week.

“I can help too” Quill piped in determinedly.

“Oh, no you don’t boy. You stay in the ventilation system until Kraglin fetch you” Yondu said angrily and pointed with his finger reprimanding at the terran who immediately evolved into a pout.

“Well, the plan sounds as good as you can get right now”

“And Kraglin”

 

“Yes captain?”

 

“Make sure you keep Club alive until I got back, would you?”

 

“Yes cap’n!” Kraglin answered grimly and thumped this chest in the ravanger salut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't stress this enough but Kraglin with his nose tucked into the blankets is too adorable to handle 
> 
> (I'm going to have to draw that later)


	5. Final game

Kraglin met up with the prisoners at the appointed time. He had manage to sneak into the armory and grabbed as many guns he could carry. He had nearly gotten caught doing it. The armory wasn’t the most prioritized to look after when they had a ship without power but it had been a hassle to carry the guns. It had slowed Kraglin down enough for someone to accidentally come by before he managed to get out of there. His ribs were sore after the knee he got there and he really hoped that he would not need to crawl around in the ventilations any longer after this.

“Yes! Kraglin, you got them!” Oblo crowed excitedly when he stepped inside the hold.

“Hush! Watch out for Wrzu” Hagar reprimanded him and pointed over at the purple ravager sitting in a chair ten meters away.  
  
She was deep asleep as they had predicted and snored loudly. Kraglin made the process short, he went over and slit her throat before she woke up. He took the keys and opened the door to the cell.

“Nice! Let’s do this!”

“To the bridge. Kill everyone you see! Kraglin said and then ran for the exit with the freed ravagers after him.

They took the mutineers by surprise. An angry flood of red leather that went with a roar through the ship, killing everything in its path. They reach the bridge with minor effort. Kraglin’s stealth attacks during the past days had killed some of them and made the rest bundle together in safety. That also meant that Kraglin and his group ran into problems when they reach the bridge.

The mutineers quickly locked the door when they saw them coming. Fortunately they had not been smart enough to consider to hack captain's access and remove Kraglin as first mate which meant the door opened again when he pushed the button. He would had laughed at their stupid expressions but opening the door also meant they had no cover for the fire the mutineers open up against them. Kraglin threw himself to the side and then he and the others returned the fire.

  
It was a mess, no one really knew who was winning and blaster bolts was flying everywhere. Kraglin had just gutted one of the mutineers when he saw Hagar fall to the ground undoubtedly dead. It was Club that had killed him. Kraglin roared and threw himself at Club. The man was bulky and Kraglin was no match against him in a fair fight. That was why Kraglin never fought fairly. He cling onto Clubs back out of reach. Club tried to shake him but Kraglin was determined. The Xandarian managed to pull a knife from one of his many stashes.

“Tell your men to surrender our I will paint this place in your blood”  he said with an animalistic growl and held the knife against Club’s throat.

“Fuck! Stop! Stop!” Club scream to the men.

Everyone froze and looked confused at the pair.

“Come on, tell them” Kraglin snarled.

“Drop the weapons, we surrender” Club said after a hard swallow that nicked his green toned skin.

“As if! Kill him! I will be captain instead!” one of the mutineers answered and raised his gun at Kraglin. Half a second later he laid dead on the floor, brain shout out his skull by Oblo.

“Anyone else wanting to claim the captain’s title?” he said with a cheeky grin.

That had the mutineers drop their guns and hold up their hands.

They rounded them up and took them to the hold, Horuz grumpily replacing Wrzu roll with a very fresh reminder to not fall asleep on duty.

Kraglin took a deep breath. They had managed to take the ship back. One part done, now they just needed to get the ship back running again.  
Kraglin checked status of the repairs and was happy to see that the mutineers hadn't been total idiots, they had been working on getting it back up. It still looked like it would take a while to get it running again. He called Yondu and told him about the situation.  
He ordered all remaining crew to help with the repairs, no sleep until it was fixed. Kraglin did take a break to go fetch a very bored terran out of the ventilation system though.

***

What Yondu could gather from the brief moment he spoke to Kraglin the Eclector was in bad shape. Kraglin had send him a list on additional things they would need from Raxtar because of the whole incident with the Kree. Raxtar had made a fuss but by the time Kraglin finally arrived, two days after he managed to take the ship back, Yondu had managed to lay his blue fingers on all the parts needed. 

 

Yondu was sitting in one of the fluffy gold colored sofas doing a final check of the list of all the thing packed in the crates waiting at the dock to be loaded on the shuttle and taken back to the Eclector. He had ordered Tullk to go back up and get some more down to Raxhar, not wanting to wait any longer on this stupid planet. And since he already paid, no longer caring if Raxtar III got furious if some of the vessels coming down to carry supplies technically usually was used for fighting.

Kraglin came down in one of them. He sauntered over to Yondu like he had no care in the world. Yondu could see that that wasn’t true, if the had thought Kraglin looked like shit when he talked to him in the ventilation system it was nothing to how he looked now. His shoulders was saging, it was a tiredness over his whole appearance, that was the first thing Yondu noticed. When he got closer he could see the bags under his eyes that had only gotten bigger. He was dirty. He had wiped the blood away from his clothes, Yondu could see he missed some spots.  
Kraglin’s hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, and his beard was long due for a trimming. In the harsh light of the small Raxhar sun there was nothing hiding that his cheeks had gotten hollower and his jumpsuit was even baggier than normal. Yondu maybe got a bit of bad conscience about that, knowing they had run out of food long ago while he had complained to Raxtar that he didn’t like that one of the seven different cookies served every afternoon had _Remma_ berries in them.

Kraglin stopped when he got to him. He did the ravager salute and handed him a datapad.

“Captain. Here is a status report on the Eclector” he said professional and stiff.

Yondu took the pad but kept his eyes on Kraglin. He didn’t meet his gaze, but he had that nervousness in his eyes, the unsure looked that seemed to ask what was expected of him. The captain sighed deeply.

“Kraglin?” he said.

“Eh, yes captain?” Kraglin asked unsure and met his eyes for a brief moment before he looked away again.

“You did good boy”

Kraglin’s head flew up and he looked at Yondu shocked. Then when he realized that Yondu looked back at him serious, meaning what he said, a small smile started to tuged at the corner of his mouth. The Xandarian looked away sheepishly and a small hint of a blue blush was visible on his cheeks. Yondu huffed at him. Really, he should try to remember telling Kraglin more often that he did a good job. Another thing he might have some bad conscience about.

“Don’t just stand there looking like an idiot, sit down” Yondu said and pulled Kraglin down in the sofa next to him.

Kraglin started to point out some key points in the report and Yondu showed him what he managed to get in means of supplies. He was in the middle of it all when he felt a small bump on his shoulder. He looked down and found to his surprise Kraglin’s head resting against him, fast asleep and even snoring slightly. Kid had went out like a light in the middle of the briefing. The exhaustion and relief seemed to finally caught up to him. Yondu just smiled a small smile, his private ones that wasn't all sharp teeth. He went back to reading Kraglin’s report, carefully not to move to much and wake him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are one more chapter which is a sort of short epilogue


	6. Epilogue

Yondu woke up with a startle. For a second he was disoriented and thought he was still at Raxhar, that he had just dreamt that Kraglin had came and they had loaded the supplies. Dreamt that Kraglin had turned a shade of blue in embarrassment that could rival Yondu's color when he woke him up and the poor first mate realised that he had falling asleep leaning on his captain, when said captain was speaking to him.  
Yondu didn’t mind really. He had just been stranded on a idiotic planet for several days and had a mutiny going on on his ship while he was not there. Frankly, he gave very little fucks right that moment and the boy was exhausted, he didn’t blame him.  
  
They had walked to the shuttle, Kraglin mumbled panicked apologises while shifting his gaze between Yondu’s face and his arrow. Yondu had just put one of his muscular arms around Kraglin’s thin shoulders and shook him until he stopped talking. Then he had given his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and had felt Kraglin relax, getting the message.

 

Yondu thought he had done that at least, if it hadn't been part of the dream?

The dream… the dream… it was the same old, same as ever but he had woken up and thought that he was in an unfamiliar place, no security to make his dream fade.

But then he finally registered familiar things, like the fur under his body, a forgotten trinket on the floor, the nightstand next to him with the ravager’s flame. He was back at the Eclector, in his bed in the captain's quarters. He took a deep breath and laid down on his back.

He turned his head and there was Kraglin, sleeping next to him like any other night. He had his back turned against him, face facing any potential danger from outside, watching his back like a good first mate should. His breath was calm and deep, he was asleep still, Yondu hadn’t woken him with his nightmare. Truth, Yondu had them frequently and Kraglin had gotten use to them, not getting startled awake, knife in his hand, whenever Yondu lurch from his past.  

Yondu's muscles relaxed and he sank deeper down in the furs covering his bed. He focused on Kraglin’s calm breathing and matched his own with his. Just in his underwear it was obvious Kraglin lost weight over the last two weeks. His knobbly spine more visible than normal. Yondu had held a grand dinner after he had gotten back with the supplies, lighting the mood of the crew tenfold.  
The ones that had stayed on the Eclector gulfed down there food hungrily, Kraglin included. Yondu have had to tell him to skip work talk for the morning and focusing on eating because he could not make out a single word his first mate was saying when he shoved in three shi'ali rolls in his mouth at a time.

The feast highlight had been the entertainment , Club and his traitorous friends meeting a not so swift and a not so painless death. It had been a great evening. Still, it would be nice to have things being a little more normal from now on, normal as in Yondu being on his ship and no mutiny going on. The time on Raxhar had given him plenty of time to land some new, actually good, jobs that the remaining crew would really enjoy, further cementing the thought that things was better when Yondu was captain and not some idiot called Club, just in case some of idiots hadn’t got the hint at the dinner.

There were a faint knock on his bedroom door and it was opened  by a tired and sad terran. Kraglin jolted awake and had his knife out in a heartbeat. Yondu just practiced put his hand around the xandarian’s elbow, shaking it slightly to wake him properly.

“Relax boy, it’s just Quill”  he said tiredly.

Kraglin’s bleary eyes focused on Peter and he huffed annoyed, putting his knife back.

“Yondu?” The kid said tentatively. Yondu just grumped in answer, already knowing what he wanted.

“I can’t sleep, I had a nightmare” the terran murmured, staring down at his feet.

Not strange considering the mutiny really. The little terran didn’t feel safe out of the vent.

Kraglin just sigh, the only complaint he would give about his captain’s pet, and moved a little bit further out on the mattress, making room for a Quill sized person in between them.

“Well, come on then, or do you want to go back to your room?” Yondu grumbled and laid down on his back again.

A second later he felt small dimples in the mattress when Peter climbed up in the bed and laid down between them.

“Goodnight Yondu, goodnight Kraglin” Peter said tiredly.

“Goodnight kid” the centaurian said with a tired smile, secretly moving a tiny bit closer the small body next to him, just to steal his warmth, that's all.

Kraglin’s answer was some sort of an affirmative that he heard the terran, definitely not anything passable for being goodnight.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all
> 
>  
> 
> (I mean, I've already started on a new one but it's with Yondu and comic Kraglin so it's not the same and I do not know if it will be worth publishing yet)

**Author's Note:**

> I exist on Tumblr (not often but sometimes): www.loinski-and-my-interests.tumblr.com/


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